Not a fan of any of the smartwatch options? You might want to consider something smaller, as the Samsung Galaxy Ring touches fingers and retail in October.
Wearables were getting smaller, but for a truly interesting example of just how small, it’s worth looking at something Samsung unveiled at Galaxy Unpacked earlier in the year.
An event typically about foldable phones and new Galaxy Watch models, the 2024 event also saw something that had been rumoured for some time: a smart ring that brought health tech down to a truly compact size, right down to your digits. One digit, that is.
Back at the launch, Samsung had yet to determine whether the Galaxy Ring would launch locally (and if so, when). Barely two months later, there’s a proper release time frame, as the maker of the Galaxy phone targets mid-October for an Australian release.
Officially, Samsung is being quiet on pricing, though the company has said that customers will be offered a Galaxy Ring sizing kit to help them identify the right size.
Unlike a smartwatch that can be fitted to a wrist by simply tightening it, the Galaxy Ring will be matched to specific ring sizes, and they vary wildly. Samsung will be making nine size options in three colours, covering sizes five to 13 in titanium black, silver, and gold.
Each ring in the sizing kit is a dummy ring you’ll be trying on, largely to find the right ring choice for your fingers.
That is to say it’s a ring in the same shape complete with the bumps of where the sensors will be, so you can get a gauge of which ring size you need for your finger. Samsung notes that you should find one that feels right and wear it for 24 hours in order to find the right Galaxy Ring size.
Like the Galaxy Watch Ultra, our expectation is the wearable will support Android devices on the whole, with the better experience on a Samsung device specifically, though iOS is not expected to be supported.
For people interested in the process, it’s one that will be available solely at Samsung’s stores and the Samsung website, with mid-October being the expected timeframe, but without an official price. However, with tag of $399 in the US, it will likely hit closer to the $600 to $700 mark locally, potentially fitting it in between the Galaxy Watch 7 standard models and that more expensive Watch Ultra.
